Bid to smuggle drug from Iran foiled

Manama : Narcotics worth around BD250,000 were recently seized in the biggest drug bust this year, while being smuggled from Iran through the sea.

This comes as Interior Ministry announced in a statement issued here yesterday that “Coast Guard patrols have foiled the trafficking of a large quantity of narcotics worth more than BD248, 000, via the sea from Iran”.

“The Maritime Operations Centre suspected a boat in the north of Bahrain that was sailing despite the maritime ban and when it was chased by the patrols it tried to sail to the shallow water, but the security forces managed to stop it. Two Bahrainis on the boat were the arrested,” the ministry’s statement read.

The suspects were identified by the Ministry as Ahmed Riyadh Al Qazaz, 25, and Sayed Hassan Ashoor. The ministry confirmed that Al Qazaz has a drugs-related criminal records in which tools for narcotic use were confiscated from his car earlier, while it said that the second suspect was the owner of the boat.

“Investigations, in cooperation with the Anti-narcotics Directorate, revealed that the two were involved in a drug trafficking case, in which the two dumped a large quantity of narcotics from Iran in the sea that was sent to the first arrestee from an Iranian drug trafficker. The Coast Guards managed to find the narcotics through the radar system hidden in rubber tyres in the seabed and tied with a rope. The seized narcotics are 33KG of hashish and less than 1KG of methamphetamine. Legal proceedings were taken and the case was referred to the Public Prosecution,” the statement concluded.

Interior Ministry statistics shows that around 700 narcotics smuggling cases were reported last year. The cases were reported at Bahrain International Airport, King Fahad Causeway, Mina Salman Port and Khalifa bin Salman Port.